Akhanda Yoga Therapies

12/11/2024

if anyone can help these poor hens, please contact the number in the link. X

22/10/2024

Hi Yogis!

These are the Tibetan monks I was telling you about tonight in class.

They are performing, as part of Whitby's Musicport Festival, at a variety of venues and I can highly recommend going to see them if there are still tickets left!

More details at www.musicportfestival.com

Tashi Lhunpo Monks

02/09/2024

Sorry Yogis but there won’t be any yoga on the 3rd & 24th September. Sorry it’s been a bit inconsistent recently. Hopefully things will run a bit more smoothly from October! X

19/06/2024

☀️Free Summer Solstice Celebration
☀️Kingston Fields, Fylingthorpe
☀️Friday 21st June
☀️8am- 8.45am (ish!)

It’s a bit last minute, but if anyone would like to join me for a Solstice celebration on Friday morning, you’d be very welcome.

We’ll be doing some energising pranayama (breath work) to start with, then a short warm up before moving through a few rounds of sun salutations.

☀️Just bring a mat and a smile!

22/05/2024

🌸🌕🌸She’s almost here…

Thursday’s Super Flower Moon will appear as the largest and brightest moon so far this year. She peaks at around mid-day on Thursday so don’t forget to look up tonight & Thursday night!

A great pranayama (breathing exercise) to practise whilst sitting under the moon is one we practised during Tuesdays night’s class called Chandra Bhedana.
This translates as Moon Piercing & is commonly known as left nostril breathing.
The left nostril is associated with cooling & calming, feminine, lunar energies so this is a perfect full moon breath practise.

🌕 Start by sitting in a comfortable seated pose with a straight back & your shoulders relaxed.
🌕 Close your right nostril with your right thumb & inhale slowly & deeply through the left nostril.
🌕 Now, using your ring finger, close your left nostril, open the right nostril & exhale fully through the right.
🌕Repeat this cycle for a few rounds, always inhaling through the left nostril & exhaling through the right.

Chandra Bhedana pranayama is believed to offer many benefits including; activating the parasympathetic nervous system thus helping to relieve stress & anxiety, cooling the body, helping with insomnia, relieving heartburn & reducing high blood pressure!

30/04/2024

🌸☀️🌸Beltane Blessings lovely Yogis! 🌸☀️🌸
🌸Beltane is celebrated on May 1st and it marks the midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.
🌸Beltane is rooted in ancient Celtic traditions and celebrates fertility and the height of Spring.
🌸It acknowledges the sun's strength and purification and is a time of joy, community, and honoring the energy of Nature.
🌸 Tonight’s class with be a soul soothing, candlelit, Beltane celebration.

See you at 7.30pm!

07/04/2024

Just a reminder that we'll be at cosy Wybury on Mount Pleasant North, on Tuesday 9th April as the Village Hall isn't available this week.
We're fully booked on the 9th but back to the Village Hall and plenty of space the following week.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend x

20/03/2024

Welcome Spring! 🌸💕🌸

29/02/2024

Leap…

Without this extra day once every four years, we would eventually lose our seasons as we know them. This day exists solely to keep us in track with the sun and I love that thought. Chasing light to stay right. Whatever you do today, look for the light. And whilst we are doing that perhaps we can take a little leap in the direction of the sun too. Reach for something shiny you’ve been afraid to feel deserving of. It’s all about the light, this life. It’s all about staying with the light…

Donna Ashworth

Art by the amazing Catrin Welz-Stein



(Thank you all for your lovely well wishes yesterday on my paperback launch 🌱☀️ Sunday Times bestseller https://amzn.eu/d/i4ZqNVF)

01/01/2024

Happy New Year to all & I look forward to seeing some of you back on your mats tomorrow!

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m not for a moment,
expecting this to occur,
for that is not possible,
a year must be all things.

Happiness must come and go,
like the tides and the winds,
just as sadness,
and all the emotions in between.

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you,
a baseline of peace,
of gratitude.

Because if you can sit with these things,
for the most part,
happiness will thrive,
when it does arrive,
and sadness will know its place in the mix.

If you can nourish these things,
daily,
you will also grow hope,
for it flourishes in such soil.

And hope is the key,
to this enigmatic state
of ‘happiness’ we seek.

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you more happy days,
than sad days,
more joy than misery,
more laughter than tears…
and the wisdom to accept,
that they all belong.

Happy new year, my friends.
Happy new year.

Donna Ashworth

Beautiful art by

21/12/2023

18/12/2023

If you haven’t sent cards this year, or forgotten someone’s gift.
If you don’t have matching pyjamas or a festive family photograph.
It’s okay.

If you can’t find the energy to be merry and bright,
or your tree isn’t even decorated yet.
That’s really just fine.

If you don’t feel like watching your favourite Christmas movies, or honouring the traditions that you normally always do.
Don’t sweat it, my friend.

This year has been hard, for many.
Really hard.

If you can’t see a way to celebrating like you have in the past, don’t worry.
Just hang on in there, finding any joy you can in any little way.

Just make it through till next year.
One day at a time.

We need you.

Hang on in there.

You are loved.

Donna Ashworth
Author of ‘wild hope’

Image by Joshua Seoyng